Joblessness up 32 p.c., but downturn eases

Press, 22 February 1989, Page 9

Joblessness up 32 p.c., but downturn eases

By

PETER LUKE,

political reporter

Surveyed joblessness rose 32 per cent to 161,000 between the 1987 and 1988 December quarters, but the downturn in employment eased in the three pre-Christmas months.

Total joblessness made up 9.7 per cent of the labour force in the December quarter last year, according to the Statistics Department’s household labour force survey.

In the previous December quarter total joblessness was 122,000. The survey’s findings are usually confusing because it distinguishes joblessness from unemployment. This week will be even more difficult because the alternative measure of unemployment — the Labour Department total of registered unemployed — will be released on Friday. . Of the 161,000 surveyed as jobless, 66,300 people did not meet the criteria for being classified as unemployed, because they were not actively seeking or not available for work.

The remaining 94,700 made up six per cent of the labour force. The comparable figure in the December, 1987, quarter

was 67,000 unemployed. The unemployment rate in Christchurch in the December quarter last year was 4.7 per cent, compared with 5.1 per cent in Auckland, 4.1 per cent in Wellington and 7.3 per cent elsewhere. It is the first quarter in more than a year that Christchurch has a lower unemployment rate than Auckland. The survey found that there were 8700 unemployed in Christchurch, compared with 7900 — 4.2 per cent of the labour force — in the December, 1987 quarter. But unemployment eased both in Christchurch and nationally between the September and December quarters last year.

Nationally it fell from 6.1 per cent to six per cent, and in Christchurch from 5.2 per cent to 4.7 per cent. The greater

jobless figure nationally rose over tnese two quarters from 156,700 to 161,000. The Statistics Department said that none of these changes were statistically significant.

A similar trend, however, was visible in the totals for those employed. Between the December quarters of 1987 and 1988, employment fell by 68,000 — from 1,564,000 to 1,496,400. Large contributors were manufacturing, down 21,200, and community, social and personal services, down 19,200. But between the September and December quarters employment rose by 17,200, including increases in manufacturing, 6000, agriculture, forestry and fishing, 7600, and wholesale and retail trade, 5400. A departmental official noted that an

improvement in employment or easing in unemployment in December had been revealed in the last two surveys.

This was probably caused by seasonal demand and the department was not yet able to seasonally adjust the figures. In December, 1987, for example employment rose from the September quarter figure of 1,543,500 to 1,564,400, but then dropped sharply to 1,528,500 in the March quarter, and further in the two subsequent surveys. The number of registered unemployed in December — the Labour Department figure — was 162,821 (including vacation workers) or 12.14 per cent of the work force. The figure is based on a different

definition of the work force, not based

on a survey, and lacks the tighter unemployment criteria of the Department of Statistics figure.